7 June 2012

Taco Week!

We’ve had a long-standing tradition of “Taco Tuesday” at the Jonski Homestead. A month or so ago, I responded to a request for tacos on a different day of the week with a flippant “maybe we should have tacos every night.” This snark was met with much enthusiasm. So this week has been taco week!

Monday night was carne asada on corn tortillas. I used this recipe, although I modified the spices quite a bit (based on what I had on hand) and skipped the sauce making steps. Also, I used a (locally raised, grass-fed :^) sirloin tip roast instead of flank steak, because it was much less expensive. I sliced the roast in half before marinading for an hour, then sliced it into strips as it started cooking. Things got a little nerve-wracking at one point (a layer of gristle (?) made for difficult slicing) and I began to fear that our tacos would be a failure, but they were declared “as good as Taco King!” (a new taqueria in the neighborhood, with really great $1.50 steak tacos). And the meat was not tough, despite starting its career as a roast but not being slow roasted. This will be repeated.

Tuesday night was the traditional ground beef (and cheese, sometimes beans, salsa, lettuce, etc) in hard shells, along with black beans. Can’t mess with tradition. Everyone except me likes these – although the youngest doesn’t want ground beef in his. Go figure. I am not a fan of store-bought crunchy taco shells, even the Trader Joe’s organic (non-GMO) corn taco shells that we use. I always have something else (such as beans and cheese in corn tortillas left from Monday).

Wednesday night we had chicken tacos in flour tortillas. Between picking up my farm share and delivering a child to baseball practice, I sauteed some boneless skinless white meat, then sliced it up and heated it for a while in my favorite salsa (tomatillo roasted yellow pepper, from Trader Joe’s).

Thursday night was leftovers and “pizza tacos,” due to the ice cream social at school. The eldest child and I whipped up a few tacos from the leftovers; the youngest two had a slice of pizza (and ice cream, and popcorn, and cotton candy, and… you get the picture) at the social.

Friday night will be pork tacos – I need to track down a way to prepare it. A few months ago I put a pork roast in the crock pot with a “mojito” style marinade/sauce and turned it into shredded pork at the end. That was pretty good. Maybe I can track it down and try again.

A friend suggested fish tacos, but the Jonski Papa is out of town this week so I’d be the only one who would eat them. Ditto for strictly veggie tacos (such as sauteed peppers and onions, my sometime Tuesday night alternative). Bean tacos are acceptable, so if Taco Week extends into Saturday we might be looking at beans – plus the rest of the steak and chicken.

(aside: Taco King prepares their tacos with cilantro and chopped raw onions. Surprisingly, everyone in my family liked the cilantro – none of those soap-tasters in this family, and willing acceptance of a new green food. So cilantro has accompanied the lettuce all week – both from Capella Farms. Raw onions are roundly rejected by everyone, so not included (and excluded from orders at TK).)

My mom always mashed a can of kidney beans and added it to the ground beef for tacos – it’s juicier that way, and it makes the beef stretch farther 🙂 My sister says one of the food trucks near her dorm made sweet potato tacos – a chunk of roasted sweet potato in a tortilla with a spicy sauce – and that sounds delicious.

Hmm, I’ve never heard of that mashed bean trick. All but the youngest now add beans to their ground beef tacos, but it’s worth a try. I think I’d like the sweet potato variety. There’s another newish taco place in town where I tried a potato taco. I was expecting spiced chunks, but the filling was more like mashed potatoes. I was not impressed!